DALLAS -- House Democratic leaders and the conservative Heritage Foundation are rejecting for opposite reasons a fiscal 2016 appropriations bill that basically freezes federal transportation funding at current levels.
The House is slated to vote late Tuesday on H.R. 2577, which would provide $40.25 billion for highways and $10.7 billion for transit in fiscal 2016 -- almost $20 billion less than President Obama requested for transportation in his proposed FY-2016 budget.
A message sent to House Democrats on Tuesday morning by Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the proposed appropriations measure does not provide enough funding for transportation.
Hoyer said the bill would cut a number of popular competitive grant programs, including a $200 million cut in the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts grant program to $1.9 billion next year from $2.1 billion in FY-2015.
That's $1.3 billion less than President Obama requested for New Starts in his Grow America Act, H.R. 2410, Hoyer said.
Hoyer criticized the measure for proposing to slash the popular, oversubscribed Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery competitive grant program to $100 million in FY-2016, down from $500 million in FY-2015. The bill would cut TIGER funding to about 80% below the lowest level since the program began in FY-2009 as part of the stimulus effort, he said.
The president's proposal called for a $1.25 billion TIGER program in FY-2016 and a total of $7.5 billion of the grants through FY-2021.
House Democrats also oppose provisions in the bill that would limit travel to Cuba.
"Members are urged to vote No," the letter said.
The Heritage Foundation said the bill should be defeated because it appropriates some $11 billion more in FY- 2016 to transportation than will be collected from taxes dedicated to the Highway Trust Fund.
Heritage said it will consider a lawmaker's vote on the transportation appropriations bill when developing legislative scorecards.
"The Highway Trust Fund, which funds federal spending on highway projects through a gasoline tax, is nearly bankrupt and will require a bailout of more than $3 billion by October and $8 billion by January 2016 in order to continue current operations," Heritage said. "Rather than providing a roadmap to fix these problems, the appropriations bill continues Washington's bloated, inefficient, and politicized role in infrastructure spending."
The White House promised last week to veto the appropriations measure unless highway and transit funding are increased.
"The administration strongly opposes the reductions in funding for surface transportation programs, which would essentially preclude new investments while freezing or reducing most major capital accounts below prior-year funding," the Office of Management and Budget said June 3 in an Administration Policy Statement. "If the President were presented with H.R. 2577, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill."
The bill was adopted by the House Appropriations Committee on May 13 along with an amendment by Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, to prohibit federal funding for two light-rail projects in Houston unless local voters approve them.
The House will consider several amendments to the bill Tuesday night, none of which would significantly affect the totaling funding provided.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., has proposed a 1% reduction from each appropriations allocation and Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., wants to prohibit federal funding of passenger rail projects along Florida's east coast.
Posey has proposed additional amendments prohibiting the use of exempt-facility bonds to finance rail projects that would not exceed 150 miles per hour and to cap loans under the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act at $600 million.
